About 400 people gathered to warm themselves, in an act that was more of a collective hug with which to get along
A gala to comfort, to comfort us. When we go to eat at a restaurant we can do it by commitment, for fun, for pure subsistence or even by accident. But also, so many times, to comfort and comfort us. To find comfort before a good table, a good company, a good kitchen. We did not believe until now that a gala could have those properties. But the one with the hedonistic yearbook, the one who makes nine!, served just for that: Comfort, comfort us.
On a Monday morning in front of the waters, so calm, so gentle, of the Navy, as someone who goes to the shore to recompose himself. Inside/outside of BioHub. At the seams of a spring-like city that, however, is still broken. Camouflaged with the cover of the 2025 Yearbook, hundreds of professionals, friends and acquaintances from the gastronomy sector together claimed that the table is location. And that behind that tablecloth, raising that glass of wine, hunting those bravados, is a city made of towns that in the worst days has proven to be together by those who could not lift their blinds, put the tablecloth, serve the wine, incite their bravas.
Thank you for the commitment of the cooks
City and sector mobilized by theirs and, at the same time, demanding help from the world because -who was going to tell us- many of us needed to eat. That is why the 2025 Hedonist Yearbook Awards for Social Commitment were for the initiative ‘From Valencia to Valencia’ (Ricard Camarena and Quique Dacosta picked him up from the hand of Paula Llovet, Councilor for Tourism, Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Valencia) and for the World Central Kitchen (Jesús Terrés gave the recognition to Germán Carrizo and Carito Lourenço). In that awareness of not being res if you are not poble Some of our most relevant chefs ever served the people like never before. They deserved prizes that are our way of saying thank you.
Ricard extended the award to his colleagues, with one of those already indelible phrases: “No one does a paella if he doesn’t know he has the products to make it. We promoted ‘from Valencia to Valencia’ because we knew you were here.” Germán, with his voice clearer than ever, asked for applause for all the volunteers of World Central Kitchen.
A thank you to one and the other that the director of Hedonist Guide, Paula Pons, expressed in her speech: “It is essential to recognize the work that you have done so many chefs, cooks and hoteliers and people linked to the sector. Generosity, that responsibility and that empathy that you have shown by contributing what you know how to do so well, scratching hours of sleep and focusing on what really mattered, has been an example that will always last”.
170 pages without artifices
Since the beginning of time, those nine years in which there are decades, our yearbook has brought together stunning tables with modest bars, millionaire projects with humble taverns. To great hoteliers with waiters, and heads of room with sommeliers. The mix by flag to represent, in the most faithful way possible, a reality that breaks down through 99 restaurants. As real as the composition of Anna Devis and Daniel Rueda For that cover that is already among the best in the history of the yearbook. In it, as in the 170 pages of the interior, there is no artifice. Anna and Daniel have done it with their hands. Once the sheets are unfolded, it will appear Toni Segarra (hedonist before publicist), the photos of Mikel Ponce For the Top 12, which extend with those of our usual Kike Taberner and Marga Ferrer. The edition and design of the Lobo agency envelops, like cellophane, the texts of new passengers such as Icaro Moyano, Alexandra Sumasi, Marc Casanovas and Yanet Acosta, plus the analysis of the newsroom: Los Pons, Terrés, Moreira, Caro, Salas, Escrivá, Briasco, Molins, Parra, Marco, Navarro… and two novelties: Xavi Moret and Javier Martínez.
The hug of a sector
During the morning those nearly 400 people, giving themselves heat, began listening to the intervention of the vice president of Ediciones Plaza Conchita Lucas (“We have the social responsibility to move forward. Getting the guide is betting on the hospitality sector: it has earned it”). The council closed the act Paula Llovet, just after another applause, this time for the Innovation Awards, at the hands of Santo and the Sustainability Award for the Rioja restaurant, which went to Vicente Rioja from Raquel Vicente (Gourmet Catering).
The infinite hugs were a little stronger than usual. Perhaps because they were more needed. Among the best known chefs and with those anonymous faces that we find in the rooms and that make our day a little better. Looking over the terrace of the BioHub served to verify that forming a community is more convenient than going alone, especially in the steepest moments. A little in the distance that hug resembled the scene of the Genoese painting.
The yearbook is already on sale. In kiosks and in bookstores, also in a few days in the online store. It is a yearbook that connects the points of a map, Valencia, full of good places to comfort, to comfort us.
